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Sun 23 Jun 2019 16:25 - 16:50 at 106A - Mechanics / Message Passing

Write barriers are a fundamental mechanism that most production
garbage collection algorithms depend on. They inform the collector
of mutations to the object graph, enabling partial heap collections,
concurrent collection, and reference counting. While in principle,
write barriers remember only the pointers within the object graph
that were changed and do so just once, widely-used write barriers
are less precise, sacrificing temporal and/or spatial precision to
performance. The idea of precisely remembering just the pointers
that were changed is not new, however implementing performant
field-precise barriers has proved elusive.
We describe a technique for efficiently implementing field-logging
barriers. We implement a number of barriers and evaluate them on a
range of x86 hardware.
A generational field-logging barrier performs with 0.1% to 1%
mutator overhead compared to a highly tuned object-logging barrier,
while a preliminary implementation of a reference counting
field-logging barrier performs with around 1% to 2% overhead compared to
a highly tuned object-logging reference counting barrier.
These results suggest that garbage collection algorithms that
require the precision of exactly remembering field mutations without
sacrificing performance may now be possible, adding a new mechanism
to the design toolkit available to garbage collection researchers.

My research interests are centered on the challenge of making software run faster and more power-efficiently on modern hardware. My primary interests include: microarchitectural support for managed languages, fast and efficient garbage collection, and the design and implementation of virtual machines. As a backdrop to this I have a longstanding interest in role of sound methodology and infrastructure in successful research innovation.

Sun 23 Jun

Displayed time zone: Tijuana, Baja California change

16:00 - 17:15
Mechanics / Message PassingISMM 2019 at 106A
16:00
25m
Talk
snmalloc: A Message Passing Allocator
ISMM 2019
Paul Lietar , Theodore Butler Drexel University, USA, Sylvan Clebsch Imperial College London, Sophia Drossopoulou Imperial College London, Juliana Franco Microsoft Research, Cambridge, Matthew J. Parkinson Microsoft Research, UK, Alex Shamis Microsoft Research / Imperial College London, Christoph M. Wintersteiger Microsoft Research, UK, David Chisnall University of Cambridge
16:25
25m
Talk
Design and Analysis of Field-Logging Write Barriers
ISMM 2019
Steve Blackburn Australian National University
16:50
24m
Talk
Gradual Write-Barrier Insertion into a Ruby Interpreter
ISMM 2019
Koichi Sasada Cookpad, Japan
Link to publication DOI
17:14
1m
Day closing
Final Remarks
ISMM 2019
Harry Xu University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Jeremy Singer University of Glasgow